December 22, 2016

At this juncture I am very happy to have people in my life who I care for and who care for me.

Here are some photos of Honolulu at Christmas time in 2008. I got some shots with the small Nikon camera I had then, which was not as good as the camera on my I-phone. I'm glad to have these pix anyway to share; this was an especially lovely day.

'Iolani Palace.

Santa and Ms.Claus:

County Building. Full of excited keiki. There were decorated trees and other displays and a side hall with award winning wreaths. Really art works, some of them.

December 20, 2016

The girls were happy to play by the hour in the water and go down the slide in their inner tubes. We elders just rested and read.

We had dinner one night at Ray's, the in-hotel restaurant, and it was quite nice. The ad on Hawaiian Airlines shows vacationers enjoying many attractions and then (Narrator pauses..."Dinner at Rays.") It's very funny, now a family joke, and I wish I could find the ad. I think I have figured out restaurants like this. Make your meals out of the appetizers and salads and maybe the soup. The entrees can be disappointing. I think they figure by the time the main dish comes you are half plowed and won't notice how the food tastes anyway and will be placated by dessert. The desserts are often very good. I had some outstanding food, at Rays and elsewhere, using this method.

I was hoping we would see the snow on Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa and was not disappointed. The girls did not care: they have not yet reached the age when scenery interests them. The girls are very nice, by the way. Easy to please, never sulk. They think I'm very funny. I tend to act like Margaret Rutherford sometimes, making odd noises and gestures, and they laugh and laugh. This is not an act or anything, just old age dottiness.

So yes, it is winter here, and this is the proof. Snow on Mauna Kea, as seen from the Saddle Road.

Snow on Mauna Loa from Saddle Road

All in all, quite a nice holiday and a good break for all of us. We really enjoy our time together. While I'm doing this they are watching The Princess Bride, a movie from the 80s that a neighbor recommended. I'm skipping it, because it looks too scary. I'm scared enough, these days!

December 18, 2016

If you are wishing for a Hawaiian holiday you can have a little schadenfreude at the miserable stormy weather we are experiencing in Kona. The whole state is having rotten weather now. Our daughter and grandchild went to see Moana! The rest of us are reading and playing card games.

December 16, 2016

I watched a lot of it and felt a sense of intimacy with Obama. He is a responsible, feeling person. He reasons; he doesn't show anger, at least not in public. I am glad he will be able to get away to Hawaii for his last visit here as our President. He did the very best he could do with the terrible hand Bush dealt him and the incessant obstructionist behavior of his enemies. I don't know what he could have done differently, in spite of what the many many people say who seem to know all about what he should have done. I wish he had explained his position sooner. I felt he was being honest. Well, we didn't deserve him, that's for sure.

Trump is his exact opposite. He intends to tear down all government institutions, sell them off to the rich and make the U.S. over into a kleptocracy. He is perpetually angry. Even if he is stopped, and he will be stopped eventually, the damage will be incalculable. He is a nihilist who does not really care what happens to the masses.

There is a so much more to say, but this is a sad time in our collective life, so I'll leave it alone for now.

Our daughter and granddaughters arrived after a long flight out of Seattle against a headwind that added an hour and a half to the usual flight duration. They just made it on time for their short hop to the Big Island. They are happily settling in now. They all work very hard and it's nice that they can be here and gear down for well deserved R & R.

We have mounds of fruit from our yard: bananas, avocados, oranges and lilikoi (passion fruit), and they have been eating it up very fast.